City Council Members Feel The Heat Over Property Assessments

Philadelphia (CBS) — Philadelphia City Council members say they’re getting inundated with calls and emails from residents upset about the new property assessments that the Nutter Administration issued last Friday.

Councilman Mark Squilla has studied the new property values for his district, the First, and is scratching his head.

Squilla says, “we have some properties that actually have sold for 40 and 50 thousand dollars, and have assessments for 200 thousand dollars. So unless they can come up with some solid answers, I think they have a lot of work to do in order to fix the situation.”

Squilla wants those answers from the Office of Property Assessment, which created the values in a reassessment of all 580-thousand properties in the city.

Mayor Nutter urges for everyone to stay calm.

He says, “Let us not rush to judgment. Let’s look at all the facts and try to figure this out.”